Citi Plans $400 Billion in Asset Sales
Updated from 9:39 a.m. EDT
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
plans to shed up to $400 billion in additional businesses, as CEO Vikram Pandit continues his shakeup of the troubled bank.
At Citi's Investor/Analyst Day in New York Friday, Pandit was expected to say he doesn't plan on breaking up the behemoth bank, as some have called for, but will instead focus on paring non-core assets to lower costs and boost flagging profits.
The asset sales could take years and some assets may never be sold, the paper said.
Citi already has begun shedding assets. Earlier this month, the bank and partner
State Street
(STT) - Get Report
sold employee benefits joint venture CitiStreet
to
ING
(ING) - Get Report
for $900 million.
Pandit has suggested since he assumed the bank's top post in December that he would look at asset sales and he has followed through in recent weeks with a
to refocus the bank's leaders on its core business.
It all comes as the bank has been one of the hardest-hit Wall Street institutions during the credit crunch that has gripped markets since last summer. Citi in April
reported a $5.1 billion first-quarter loss
and $12 billion in writedowns of securities tied to shaky debt.
The bank also has raised more than $40 billion through sales of common and preferred stock and slashed its dividend to preserve capital.
Washington Mutual
(WM) - Get Report
,
Wachovia Bank
(WB) - Get Report
and
National City
(NCC)
have also raised capital after posting first-quarter losses.
Rivals
Wachovia
(WB) - Get Report
,
Merrill Lynch
(MER)
and
UBS
(UBS) - Get Report
have also reported huge losses and writedowns in the quarter.
Shares of Citigroup were recently trading at $24.07, down 3 cents on the day.
This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.